Mayweather to make at least $32M

ByDan Rafael ESPN logo
Saturday, September 13, 2014

LAS VEGAS -- Pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr., already the highest-paid athlete in the world according to ESPN The Magazine and Forbes, will pocket a guaranteed minimum of $32 million for his rematch against Marcos Maidana, according to the contract filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission before Friday's weigh-in.

Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs), who wore a hat to the weigh-in that read "Money: Just Make It," and Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) meet in a rematch with Mayweather's welterweight and junior middleweight world championships on the line on Saturday night (Showtime PPV, 8 p.m. ET) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. They both weighed inside the 147-pound welterweight limit, Mayweather at 146 and Maidana 146.

Mayweather, nicknamed "Money," controls most of the revenue for the fight -- from the pay-per-view sales, the gate, foreign television sales, sponsorships, merchandise and closed circuit sales -- so when a full accounting is done he likely will earn far more than $32 million.

Mayweather also earned a minimum $32 million for his majority decision victory against Maidana in their first fight in May.

The fight with Maidana will be the fourth on the six-fight contract Mayweather signed with Showtime/CBS in 2013. Including Saturday night's fight, he will have been paid a minimum of $137.5 million on the deal. His minimum was $32 million apiece for the two fights with Maidana and Robert Guerrero, and a record $41.5 million for the showdown with Canelo Alvarez last September, which shattered numerous boxing revenue records, including the record for domestic pay-per-view ($150 million) and live gate (just over $20 million).

Maidana's minimum guarantee for the fight is $3 million, double his guarantee for the fight in May. But he earned more than that from Argentina television rights and an additional $1.5 million payment to wear the kind of gloves Mayweather wanted him to wear when there was a disagreement at the 11th hour.

In Saturday's co-feature, junior featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KOs) will earn a career-high $750,000, and challenger Manuel Roman (17-2-3, 6 KOs) will make $50,000.

Lightweight titleholder Miguel Vazquez (34-3, 13 KOs) will earn $450,000 for a defense against Mickey Bey (20-1-1, 10 KOs), whose purse is $125,000. Brawler Alfredo Angulo (22-4, 18 KOs), who is moving up to the middleweight division, will earn $500,000, and his opponent, James De La Rosa (22-2, 13 KOs), will make $43,000.

In the fight that will take place on the pay-per-view preview show, junior welterweight Humberto Soto (64-8-2, 35 KOs), a former two-division titleholder, will make $150,000, and John Molina Jr. (27-4, 22 KOs) will make $125,000.

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